Won 3/30/2018 from Special Lioness Raffle.
After five years of playing LD, I was blessed with this beauty <3
Notes(Scroll past for her actual bio!)
-Cubs

Originally had overgrown claws. Removed after freezing her in order to pose (it wasn't posable at the time).
--------------------------------------------------------------

Zartahera Ashildr, Goddess of Beauty

(Bio to go here)

Lineage
Came from parts and parentage unknown.
Of Heaven's Beauty family
Mother of... Mar'Saryah, River's Reflection, Finna, Kenna, Aurora of Winter, Shadow of the Stars, Darkened Snow, Hidden Flame, Shadows in the Wind, Storm of Heaven, and King Blood of Night
Goes by "Ash" among friends... or lovers...

Personality
Ash is very kind and cheerful around the pride, and makes friends easily... but as Amakiir(her best friend) once pointed out, "Ash will flirt with anything that has a pulse... and sometimes even if it doesn't."

Role in Pride
Lady Ashildr is honored by the pride as at least an incarnation of the goddess of beauty they worship, and some believe to be the god-ancestor of the Golden Suns family. She lives here and is considered as high as the king and queen in the pride.

Relationships
(To be worked on later.)
Riel'Kono is her sworn guardian and protector, having proven himself to her many times, despite his young age and has the scars to show it. She is proud of and thankful for him, and in many ways is like a mother figure to him, for his own mother, one of the pride royals, died when he was young, and his only other direct family being his father(the king) and his much older sister. It's possible she sees herself as somewhat his mother, as she truly doesn't treat him like most males.

Den
Ashildr dens somewhat farther away from the lake than most of the pride. She keeps to herself mostly, but occasionally invites one of the pride males, or even an outsider, to join her.

Bio

A Forgotten Past

Coming from a distant land, Ashildr, or "Ash" as she would be known to her pride, remembered little of her history when she came to Lake, a region quite populated by various prides. Her instincts drove her towards the central territory, a strange voice in her mind drawing her to it. In the lands of your children's kin will you find refuge from Envy, my Temptress. These strange words echoed again and again in the young lioness' thoughts. She made no sense from them, but she trusted her instincts and the voice.

Months before her arrival in the lands of the Lake Kingdom, the healers of the central "royal" pride of the Lake, specifically those who were descendants of the Lake's first king Caedmon, began to have the same dreams. These dreams depicted the return of their god-ancestor, the goddess Oit'Zartahera. In years past, she had visited the pride's ally and neighbor, the Dark Marsh, seeking a safe home for her daughter. Oit'Zartahera was described as a very beautiful lioness by the healer Eye of the Sun, who was the only one who spoke to the goddess. The healers of the Dark Marsh reported having the same dreams their Lake counterparts had of the goddess' coming. They also could hear the whispering of their ancestors, the Ancient Ones, and it seemed as though they were preparing the arrival of a queen. They also spoke of one name over and over again. "Ashildr."

Ash finally arrived at the Lake's central territory, somehow sneaking past the border prides and the patrolling lords and warriors of the pride, three months after the internal voice lead her there. She simply stood there on the edge of the lake, looking at her reflection, wondering why this voice had led her there and what happened to her memories. She could remember only glimpses of it. Four lion-like cubs from her own childhood, her siblings maybe, though they did not quite seem like normal lions. A strongly built lioness, black and white with bright blue eyes, and one of the cubs now grown, happy together and Ash with them, smiling alongside them. Then herself, but not herself, gently cradling the body of a human child between her paws, with tears flowing down her face. Once more, the same scene, but with the presence of one of the other lion-like cubs also now grown standing over the body of the child, the child's blood around their mouth as they smile with an evil grin. Your happiness and beauty are sickening, sister. I will purge it from this world. These words, belonging to the lion-creature with the twisted grin, sent shivers down Ash's body as she remembered them. However terrifying, sorrowful, or happy these memories were, they felt as if they belonged to someone else. The voice inside her head was also whispering a warning, to fear the child-killer from the flashes of memory. Ash tried remembering more, but the memories only got worse and worse. Each time she was happy, it ended in blood and tragedy and war. She decided at that moment that whoever she was in her past, it was dangerous to remember it.

"Uh, miss, can I help you?" a voice out loud called from behind Ashildr as the sun rose.

Ash turned around, finally looking up from the water, to see herself surrounded by the royal pride of the Lake. She cowered and took a defensive position, for they were at least three dozen strong, and three large males stood directly before her.

"Please, I don't mean any harm. I just came for answers, and I'll go now if you'll allow me to," Ash told them, as respectfully as she could.

The strongest looking, yet also the oldest, of the three males stepped closer to her, practically standing over the young lioness. "What answers? Why did you come..." he cut off abruptly by a dark lioness pushing him aside.

The blood red eyes of the lioness trailed past the cowering Ash and looked deeply into the water behind her. Her face bore astonishment as her jaw dropped slightly. "It's really you. You came?"

The lioness introduced herself as the queen of the Lake, Rulzateri'Evhona, though she was usually just called "Crow". She called the healers forward and more or less dismissed the males, of which the one who questioned Ash was the king, Etahoro. They looked over and questioned for themselves the strange young lioness. After some murmuring and harsh whispers, it seemed as though they had come to a conclusion. Ashildr was the lioness they were waiting for; their goddess, or at least one incarnation of her. From there, the pride treated her as if she was a queen, and while it was a welcoming place, Ash would find herself quickly overwhelmed by the excitement of the pride.

Eventually, things began to be normal, well as normal as they could be. Ash was showed the territory and presented before the allies of the pride a month later when they had a grand meeting. There she met the young king of the Dark Marsh, Tah'Lohet, who was not really sold by the idea of Ash being a goddess. She found his down-to-earthness very comforting actually. While the Lake treated her like a goddess that was made of glass, he and the Dark Marsh treated her with respect but didn't worry over her like an overprotective mother. It was for this reason that she chose to spend several years there. It was there that she would have many children and would make many friends.

Near what felt like the end of her lifetime, Ash heard the voice that called her to the Lake once more, but it carried with it new words. In the land of your children's kin you will find yourself, my Temptress. And so, with three young cubs in tow, Ash returned to the Lake at the end of Etahoro's reign. There, her son Blood of Night and his two sisters, Finna and Kenna, would grow up. When Etahoro was too old to rule as king, he left it to Ashildr to decide the fate of the pride. Already knowing that Tah'Lohet intending to give his throne to her older son, Shadow of the Stars, she gave the throne of the Lake to Night, her youngest son. He may not have been as strong as his brother, but there was a strength of heart within him that no one could challenge. However, none of this answered why the voice in her head told her she would find herself.

One morning, not long after the coronation of her son, Ash sat on the shore of the lake once more. She stared at her reflection, and although she knew her body bore the marks of aging, she saw only the young lioness who first arrived at the lake, confused and lost in the past she could not remember. "I don't want to remember it," she growled to no one in particular.

Not everything ends in pain, my Temptress. This life has not, but it will if you do not remember. A thought of Night falling to a stronger opponent crept into her mind with this response. Yes, he is in danger of falling to your sister's plots, my Temptress.

"How do I protect him? I'm not this great goddess all these lions claim me to be. I'm just an old lioness at the end of her life," Ash replied, both hoping for an answer and not an answer. She wanted silence and longed for the darkness to embrace her in her last breaths, then she could join the Stars and be at peace. Dread filled her heart, however, a fear of what would happen if the voice was speaking the truth about her son's fate.

You already know the answer, my Temptress.

She then saw something at the bottom of the lake, somehow clear through the deep water. It moved slightly and began to take the form of a lion-like creature, one that bore similar markings to herself. Without a second thought, Ash plunged herself into the waters. She struggled for a moment, her body telling her to return to the surface, but her heart telling her to reach this creature. The water seemed impossibly dark and deep around her. After a moment of calm, she looked up and saw no surface. Panic took over again, and she began to feel the suffocation as she refused to breathe, knowing she would drown.

Take a breath. She looked down to see the creature looking up at her, smiling softly.

She knew it was insane, but everything about this experience was insane. She took a breath and expected the water to fill her lungs. It did not. She opened her mouth to speak and found the words not taken by the water. Amazed and curious, she almost forgot what was going on. She looked back down at the creature which was still smiling at her, their eyes filled with kindness. She swam down to her.

Do you know who I am? The creature's mouth did not move, but the voice that had been in Ash's mind was now out loud.

"You are the voice I followed to this place," Ash answered. "You've guided me in my life, and I still don't understand why."

I am more than that. I am you, my Temptress.

"What do you mean?"

I am the one they call "Oit'Zartahera". Goddess of Beauty. War-Queen of the Fallen Ones. Echo of the Rising and Setting Sun. Protector of Orphans. Right Hand of the Eternal Cycle. The Temptress. And as I am, so are you.

"I don't want to be all that. I just want to make sure my children are safe."

That is all we have ever wanted, you and I, but our sister wants to destroy all we create. Envy's Mistress, the Jealous One, will not allow us peace. That is why we lived the life you lived. If we were mortal, we could hide from her, but her plots have seen through us.

"Was she the one I saw in my memories? When I first came to the lake?"

Yes. The voice seemed to be filled with sadness at the mention of this.

"Who was that child? Were they..." The words failed to form entirely as another flash of memory hit Ash. This time, she was not a lion or lion-like creature. She was a human woman, dressed in elegant armor. She was walking through a field, with a man at one side of her, wearing similar but not quite as beautiful armor, and a young boy, the same child from the memory before, running a small distance ahead of them. The boy looked around at the world in wonder. He turned around to look at the two armored figures and smiled. His eyes matched that of the creature Ash was speaking to now, fiery amber. The memory ended there.

He was our son. His father was our husband. We loved them both dearly, and mourned them bitterly.

"You say this 'Jealous One', that she was our sister? If that's true, what drove her to such... such a diabolic action as to murder a child, her own nephew? What could we have possibly done to her to deserve this." Ashildr felt for the first time that the memories of this unknown past were truly hers, and she felt a burning anger toward the one who took these people she once loved from her.

We loved her too closely...

"What-"

And then not enough.

The scene of the cruel lion-like creature standing over the murdered child once again played in Ash's mind. "Why, would you do this, Nor? Do you truly hate me so, sister?

"No, Zar. You turned love into hate. I simply followed the path you set before me. You destroyed my heart, dear sister, and for that, I can never forgive you. I am what your hate made of me. Your happiness and beauty are sickening, sister. I will purge it from this world. You and I will be nothing but enemies from now on. I will return the hate you gave ten thousand fold."
"I never hated you! I loved you, sister. Who held you and comforted you when you felt our grandmother's hatred and cruelty? Who begged our brother to end her for your sake? I was there when you felt lost in this world, and I was just as lost as you, but together we found who we were."
"No. You found love from others, and when you did, the love of your siblings was no longer enough. I will ensure that you do not forget that is us who will never stop loving you, unlike these fleeting mortals!" The memory ended.

She was not wrong, but we never stopped loving her. It was the poison of our grandmother, the Dark One, that filled her heart. We had thought that our brothers killing the Dark One had ended this, but her power left its scars on the world and our siblings. Nor was scarred more than any other. We could not find it in ourself to hate her, but we accepted that we could not change her either. We also could not find it in ourself to stop loving others. Our heart longed to be shared with others. So we would hide from Nor, and our children we would place under our brother's protection. Nor would never dare to touch those under Daj's guard.

"How does any of this help me now? I want to protect my children if she really is after them. How can I do that?"

By accepting your past, our past. You sealed it away, many, many years ago, wanting a new life and our grandfather, the Lord of Fate, granted it. He placed me here, for the time in which you would need me. That time has come, which is why I called you here when you first arrived. This pride, these lions who live here, they are favored by us and our brothers, for our blood runs in them. Others have forgotten us. Even the Stars do not know us anywhere but here. Here, they remember, they believe, and they listen. They will fight for you, and you for them. They will guard you as you guard them. Show them who we are, and your faith in yourself will protect your children and their grandchildren and their children. This will be enough to keep Nor at bay, for she will not come where she is not welcome. Are you ready to become yourself once more?

When the voice went finished, the creature touched Ash's face with its paw, but nothing happened, as if they were waiting for a response. "I'm ready." Then the creature began to fade. A deep warmth filled Ash's body and spirit. For the first time in a long time, she felt whole and full. She also felt the age leave her body, and she was restored to youth again. And then very suddenly, a force dragged her up towards the surface that was again visible. When she reached the surface, instead of air Ash only felt more water around her, and the struggle to swim up before her lungs gave out began again. She broke the surface and gasped, taking in a fresh breath of air. She swam to shore, finding herself far from it. She shook the water from her fur. As the lake settled back to stillness, she looked at her reflection. The lioness she saw was a young, proud, strong, beautiful version of herself.

The age truly had left her body, but the scar she earned while fighting off a rogue who attempted to harm or kill Lord Riel'Kono when he was a cub remained. He would later earn many scars protecting her in turn. The scar on her tail from when she went out hunting alone and hyenas tried to steal her kill, only for Crow and Amakiir and the rest of the hunting party to come to her aid, was also there. She looked different from before, other than being younger, but also not. They were reminders that she needed the pride as much as they needed her.

A Renewed Life

(To be worked on...)

---------------------------

Art

(Some art will be linked since the images are large)
By Hexitics #115482
==========================================================================
Unique Marking Slots/Rare Markings
-Bone Soft Unders (One of only 3 "origin" lionesses with marking. Only with slot 4)
-Onyx Panther slot 5
-Vit 6 slot 1 (Only "origin" lioness with slot 1)
-Feline Onyx 8 slot 7 (Only "origin" lioness with slot 7)
-Dim Onyx slot 2 (Only "origin" lioness with slot 2*)
*Active I should say. One other Special Lioness has it, but is on an inactive account :(

Studs with markings
-Bone Soft Unders Kings
-Feline Onyx slot 7 Kings
-Onyx Panther slot 5 Kings
-Dim O slot 2
-Dim L slot 3
-Vit 6 slot 1
-White Underfelt slot 8 pride members (since I'm not concerned about the kings, honestly XD My main boy is one of them ^^)